saltofstones

Fulfilling a request~
 
Lyrics: Gokimi
Music: Rinda
Kanji source: blog

Kanji: 哀愁喫茶店

Romaji: Aishuu kissaten

English: Sorrowful Cafe
 
Enjoy! ^^

Strangely enough, it's the complete opposite for me with the complaints that many people seem to have about VK. Back when I used to listen to symphonic metal, I would get burnt out really quickly due to many of the bands sounding familiar. VK is the only scene that I haven't been able to get burnt out on. That's probably because the VK scene itself is composed of a near limitless number of genres. Bored of nu-metal VK? I'll go listen to some shoegazey VK. When I get burnt out on that, I'll go listen to some electronic/chiptune VK. Once I've overdosed on that I can go and listen to poppy, danceable VK etc etc. The wide breadth of sounds and styles presented in the VK scene make me really wonder how people are able to get bored with it unless they only listen to like 2 bands.

So much analysis.
What's wrong with stating what you don't like about today's Visual Kei?
People did the same thing ten, fifteen, twenty years ago and most likely the same exact debate is happening in Japanese circles too. I don't think this is only happening in the west.
 
Visual Kei has gone through different phases, some more memorable than others and that have made a greater impact. It's not like everything today with Visual Kei is bad or a disappointment, but perhaps there is something about the style that's missing. In the end that's what forums are for: debate.
 
No one complains when you state that you love today's Visual Kei then why does it bother you when someone criticises it? You can do the same thing with older eras of Visual Kei, whatever you opinion may be. If you start stigmatising people for comments that you don't like even though they are personal opinions that harm no one then people will feel discourgaed to leave comments and a forum should be open for differing opinions.
 

What I don't understand is why people think VK should be different of any other music styles. On its core, VK is basically just a bunch of bands that use similar composition tropes to mix it up with the flavor-of-the-month-genre around the world (If visuals are THAT important to you when talking about MUSIC, you really should check your priorities). Being so, sometimes you enter on a 80's binge, EDM craze, 90's pop, Symphonic metal addiction, right? And other times you never listen to that genre for months, until something old or new gets your attention again, right? So why VK should be any different? Why you HAVE TO listen to it, and it's such a tragedy when nothing new interests you for a while? It's like people put VK on a pedestal of greatness, and gets upset when find out that there are much more sucky-ass bands around than great ones, like everything else in this planet.

But in all honesty, I do feel sometimes that interest in anything comes in waves. I've never been able to listen to solely one style of music, and I think there's a lot of users growing up and discovering they also need to broaden their horizons. Sometimes that means moving away from VK completely, sometimes it just means a short break. But I don't find any problems with them wanting to talk about it. This is a discussion forum, why is talking about falling out of love with VK so taboo? Especially if they are mourning it, and not simply here to hate on everything. Even though I feel like there's plenty of people around who do that too because their tastes are so streamlined and they just have to announce when they dislike any band that gets posted in the news section. Yet, we tolerate that as well. 
 
As far as the OP, I know I've posted before in other threads that I think it's natural for interest in VK to wax and wane. Sometimes it's healthy for you to take a break from something and come back later with refreshed interest. If you fall into a different interest while you're away and don't happen to come back, there's nothing wrong with that either. 
 

I can think of a few good reasons why.
 
There isn't anywhere else. There wasn't ever anywhere else really. During the VK heyday, most of our "competition" were blog spots. Finding downloads is easy. MH is one of the few bastions of hardcore music discussion left on the Internet dedicated to visual kei. It's not endemic, but it's not uncommon either. There's something about visual kei that comes and goes in waves and perhaps by sharing our experiences we can all come to a common understanding on what visual kei really means to us. The more I think about it, I don't "fall" out of other scenes or genres the way I do visual kei. I could go three to four months only listening to visual kei, and then spend another three to four months not listening to it at all. It's got a really addicting quality to it! Some people remain steadfast, others worship the false god K-Pop, and then the rest of us are somewhere in the middle, one foot still tied to this place. Or at least I am. For me at least, it's really interesting to see why people are leaving visual kei. The first reason given is usually a general one that hides the real one. A pattern I have noticed and never seen mentioned is that all it takes is one band's untimely disbandment for the wind to leave someone's sails. Mine was D'espa. For what it's worth, I haven't noticed too much complaining in this thread. But I have noticed that a lot of members have refined tastes in visual kei, and know what they like, and will tune in when something catches their interest. There's just so much going on in the scene these days, if one is not knee-deep in it and doesn't have a gateway band to ease returning into the scene, it can feel like the scene has nothing to offer them anymore.

I feel like people cling to the older bands and don't even give new bands a shot. I've done the same thing in the past but I feel like if you really do like VK you'll do your research and find something new you like. There's a lot of shitty techno bands but there are some good bands out there that get overlooked.

A lot of my early major musical discoveries are tied to this site, so it holds great sentimental value for me. I'll probably use it for as long as it exists, as it's the sole witness so to say of my musical interests over the years. It's too bad it's missing all the nu metal/ alternative rock of my early teens and the app won't scrobble from my phone so all of those plays sadly get lost. Other than stats, I play my library or write bios when I'm bored at work. I don't really use it to discover new artists anymore. The new design is the pits tho, so sterile and lifeless.

Too bad. There was always something to like on each of their releases. Especially "Shinshoku Sareta Tsuki etc."  was the best, I hope they'll live to see another day and maybe top that.

I always enjoyed having a visual representation of my music taste, and of course the stats are neat too. I much prefer the old library, though.
 
And honestly, as much as last.fm has gone downhill, the site has become such an integral part of my online experience, that it would be next to impossible for me to unyoke myself from it. *sigh* 

Gu.ナオ (Nao) (ex-Si・es・ta-->If-->La'Mule-->CELL) has joined NightingeiL.

I don't really listen to J-indie, but when I do, it's usually out of random.
 
薬師るり (Ruri Yakushi) - sings anime ops and shit. Discovered her thru a hentai I watched a while back:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQjUzYXS2W2idrbW14Ug24A
 
antihoney - Probably the first j-indie group I came across when my sister showed me a creepy Youtube video many years ago. I remember being enthralled by the creepy music, contrasted by the female lead's innocently timid vocals, giving the song an overall eerie, but sweet atmosphere; the horror movie-esque fanvideo didn't quite help either. Nonetheless, I decided to check out more stuff from the band and I eventually came to the realization that the songs were actually being sung in English, and I could understand some words without even looking at the lyrics (which is rare!). Unfortunately, it seems that antihoney were stuck in underground hell as they haven't released more than just 1 album since 2009; however, they are still distributing songs on their website as of 2015.
http://antihoney.com
 
borderless - a two-man vocal group that was active during the early 2000s. These bears were pretty popular in the gay indies scene as their music had appeared in some gay visual novels and were under the now-defunct "minority" label Dandoo Records. They broke up in 2005, and one of the vocalists, Takashi, went solo, but from what I've been able to find, the last thing he announced was back in 2011. Assuming that the guy's now in his late 40s-50s, I'm pretty sure he's retired by now.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgcIXkB3XDJ7bcpbwumqDGg
 
チャマタソ。 (chamataso.) - Another gay artist that I discovered recently while scouring thru Twitter. Debuting as 南浩平 (KOH-HEY Minami) a.k.a. сн∀ма in 2012, chamataso is a young solo vocalist who embraces his "Japanese gay idolist" persona and takes his popstar prowess to another level as he ascends through club dance, rap, and wacky melodies. With dance hits intertwined with his cartoonish vocals, chama's music should be a blast at the club~🌟
*He recently released his latest album called "ごはんがおいしいナァ！" just a few weeks ago~ :3333
チャマタソ。
南浩平 a.k.a. сн∀ма
 
 

The new Emerald is nice!
 
 

The diametrically opposed AvelCain and DIV were the only ones to make a dent in my usual apathy towards all these disbandment news in recent years. ZERO ONE was such a stunner of an album, and while they waxed and waned quality-wise after that and then lost me completely with EDR Tokyo and Ikenai Kiss, it was still a bit sad to see them go. At least we're getting some semblance of the band back with ACME, complete with the classic DIV sound I was a fan of. With AvelCain jury's still out on what they'll be doing, but at their best they mastered and delivered the zetsubou like no other at the time and no one else came close to filling their shoes yet.

AvelCain is the band I miss the most from your list even if their last releases weren't that great. To me they had something that made them very unique.
 
The 3rd Birthday is also a band that I'm gonna miss a lot, they were great from start to finish especially because of L's vocals who is one of my favorite singer in the scene. I'm happy that he formed a new band (Balalaika) shortly after the disbandement of The 3rd Birthday.

Due to my hiatus this list was horribly delayed and I'd like to apologize for that, but I still feel like a lot of us are not over the hard hitting band break ups in 2016 so the wonderful users of MH as well as the awesome ORz members got together to write up some memorials for them. So without any further delays, here are some words for the great bands that called it quits.
 

10. 凛-THE END OF CORRUPTION WORLD- (2010-2016)
 

9. Sel'm (2004-2016)
 

8. FoLLoW (2013-2016)
 
 

7. SCREW (2006-2016)
 

6. DuelJewel (1997-2016)
 

5. BORN (2007-2016)
 

4. AvelCain (2012-2016)
 

3. DIV (2012-2016)
 

2. 少年記 (Shounenki) (2011-2016)
 

1. ギルガメッシュ (Girugamesh) (2004-2016)
 
Please share with us what bands you're missing this year and let us know what you think about this list!
 
 

cocklobin is DANGEROUSLY underrated like even im guilty of forgetting they exist occasionally but the second i listen to their songs i realize just how fuckin' popping they were and i cry about how iori was robbed with femme.
coil is so good like i can' t believe they did that...i wish i was in the fandom at the time it dropped so i could see everyone's reactions (i hope y'all were screaming for art kei christ)

How was it frustrating? An absolute masterpiece of chilling and interesting modern horror cinema. Almost perfection, and one of the most original horror films in ages.

This band really did fall off the wagon. I remember jocking them hard a few years ago and then my attention drifted elsewhere and the boys were never able to pull it back. Seconding comments that they also ran out of good Dir en grey to emulate. There are a ton of 90's bands like La'cryma Christi or GRASS that they could have lifted some tracks from when they felt low on inspiration, but they really only wanted to emulate GAUZE-era Dir en grey. Which is cool, but didn't work out too well for them in the long run. I suppose they reached that wall Dir en grey did after Kisou where it's "innovate or die" and these guys chose to die instead.

Exactly this. They really dropped one repetitive release after another and in such small time windows. Most of their songs are really same-ish, some are even simply rewrites with different lyrics. Yet, there was SO much potential in this band as demonstrated by their excellent V.A. tracks, it's a shame they simply couldn't make use of it and always fell back into old behavior, playing it safe.
 
So, it's sad to see them go, but it was so expected for it to happen. Hopefully the members join new kote/homage kei groups ;3
 
Also this means that gossip is the only band signed on ains, right? That label too had such a promising future, could have easily become the next UCP, but Yukika somehow throws that away and I am sure it won't be long until this ship sinks just like RR did.

They kind of ran out of good diru to emmulate
 
In a way I'm okay with them being over. Their last two singles didn't have an impression on me like all of their 2015 releases did, and 〜reliving the old days〜 is such a broad topic that they could have explored, yet they kept a laser focus on only one flavor of it.
 
As much as I'd like to speculate that this was because of Ains pouring all of their money into Gossip now (like RR did with Avanchick), my dudes ran out of steam as soon as their 3rd album dropped (they had a song on it that sounded like they just didn't want to write the later 2/3rds of!!)
 
RIP homage-kei

Five years is a pretty good run these days, tbh.

thanks for the fun time!

Where Are They Now? (Angura Style)
 
グルグル映畫館 (Guruguru Eigakan): Inactive. Last official release in 2010. The band officially suspended activities back in 2012. Vocalist Amano Tonbimaru passed away due to unknown causes the following year. I think there have been some tribute / memorial concerts in his honor after that, but it's unlikely they'll ever get together again.
 
犬神サーカス団 (Inugami Circus-Dan): Active. Ever since their slight name change in 2012 they've been pretty consistenly productive. They've released 4 full-length albums, 1 mini-album and a compilation album in the last 5 years. 
 
駄菓子菓子 (Dagashi-Kashi):  Active. (I think?) Their last full-length album came out as far back as 2015, but I think they're still around. Using Google Translate, I found out that they've apparently had to cancel some live performances this year due to one of their members' health problems.  
 
ストロベリーソングオーケストラ (Strawberry Song Orchestra): Active. Their last cd came out in 2016, and they seem to have changed their look again since then as well. 
 
SEX-ANDROID: Inactive. Indefinite hiatus started July 19th this year.
 
太平洋ベルト (Taiheiyou Belt): Somehow still active. Despite the fact that it feels like it's been ages since they actually released anything, they're apparently still around and playing lives.
 
メトロノーム (Metronome): Active. Rather unexpectedly released a comeback album in March of this year. Hopefully they'll stick around for a while longer!
 
新宿ゲバルト(Shinjuku Gewalt): Active? Released at least one official single last year after what felt like ages. Who knows what they're up to lmao
 
FLOPPY: ???. Now that Sharaku's busy with Meto and (presumably) GalapagosS, who knows what'll happen to them. It's been a while since they've had any proper releases, but I think they were still performing at least a couple of years ago?
 
cali≠gari: Active. Released a fine-ass album a couple of months ago, check it out if you somehow haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
Here's a little list for starters. Feel free to add to it.

^ Since yazzmad kicked the bucket, I believe it's just them now and this Dolly dude's solo project. So that pretty much makes them the label's main breadwinner.